Saka Light Cavalry

Saturday, 13 February 2016

Italian Guard Infantry 6mm Baccus

Nearly finished with the Italian Guards for our Project Russia 1812 with just two more Battalions after these four. These are Baccus French three old castings and one new.

All four wear bearskins, first up is the Velites with a mainly white uniform. I find white somewhat tricky to paint as a base colour. I even used a different white to go over the crossbelts that is only noticeable if you pick up the figures for a close look. I probably won't bother again.

Italian guard units tended to have the sons of wealthy Italians within the ranks which suited Napoleon as it tied these families to his cause and the fathers of these men as the units were not usually involved in fighting. All this changed when Napoleon went east.

Wearing French uniforms also meant I had those tricky straps to paint on the backpacks. As usual I just painted the two straps, that third always looks wrong.

Next up simply termed Guard Infantry and a different uniform in that these guys were a dark green jacket. I added a Leven tree to the base just for kicks.

As you can see the Leven trees look really good, I still need to plant a load of these trees in multiples for larger area forests and woods.

I don't see any of the Italian Guard units getting much use as they really did not get that involved in battles, but they will get to fight at least once. I have the Guard Conscripts on order so these should get painted up within the next six weeks leaving me with very little left to do for the Italians for this project. I probably will be painting up a few more standard units for the Peninsular and any other battles or campaigns to come.